


Raccoon Dog

by a_gentle_dab



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Father-Son Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Slice of Life, Werehog AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25092280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_gentle_dab/pseuds/a_gentle_dab
Summary: Tom gets called one night to catch an animal trapped in someone's garage and he ends up bringing something a little more exciting than a dog or a raccoon home...
Relationships: Sonic the Hedgehog & Tom Wachowski
Comments: 51
Kudos: 243





	1. Chapter 1

“Uuuuuhhhh…” the audio burn on Wade’s voice over the radio as he thought about his question, knowing the answer should be obvious, but still having to ask, set Tom on edge.

He was 15 minutes out till the end of this shift. It was 11:15pm, he missed dinner with Maddie, and his sandwich tonight had been slightly soggy and deeply unsatisfying. 

Tom roughly picked up the handset and talked over Wade, “Wade, just send it.”

He cringed. Tom was a little too keyed up and he was about to radio back to apologize when Wade, as good natured as always, started to finally ask his question.

“Well, I know its late, but Mrs. Talburn... You know…” Wade said hesitantly.

“Yeah. 90 year old with bad eyes, what is she doing up this late?” Tom asked, then a dark thought crossed his mind, “ _Oh Wade_ , she isn’t is she?”

A beat of silence.

“OH! No, no no no. She got woken up by a loud sound and she thinks a truck hit an animal outside her house and it crawled into her garage,” Wade seemed to wince through his words like he knew he was going to say something that hurt, Tom braced himself, “She wants you to come pick it up… _tonight_.”

“Wade!”

“I- I told her to just close the garage door, and her house door and not go in Tom, but she says she keeps her potatoes out there and her grandkids are coming over with the great-grandkids tomorrow and it needs to be gone,” Wade rushed through all of Tom’s follow up questions unprompted and then added, “Also she doesn’t trust me to do it right. You know she doesn’t like me as much as you cause-”

Tom said it along with Wade while sinking into the seat of his cruiser, “- _I remind her of her Husband she met in Amsterdam in 1945_ ”

Tom took a few breaths while leaned back in the seat. Once he’d calculated the time it would take to get the dog crate from home, the catching pole from work, and actually catch the damn thing, Tom made peace with it and picked up the radio again.

“Wade?”

“Yeah?”

“Bring the pole snare. Its in the back corner by the evidence locker and meet me at Mrs. Talburn’s house.” Tom sighed into the mic, “I gotta go grab Ozzy’s crate from home. I’ll be about 20 minutes.”

“Okay! Sure!”

\---20 minutes later---

Tom was standing by the open garage door with Ozzy’s crate. It was nearly midnight and he figured once Wade got there, they’d just grab the dog and go without having to wake up the homeowner.

“Tom, you're here!” A much too loud old voice said from behind.

Tom close mouthed screamed and spun around to look at Mrs. Talburn, “Ma’am you don’t have to be up for this. You can go back to bed, I’ll close the door when I’m done.”

“I heard a noise and it was very loud and I thought someone hit a deer, but then I heard crying sounds like a child. I thought it was a child at first-” She started a long rambling story, Tom nodded along, watching the road and shooing away an errant mosquito from Mrs. Talburn's head, but he tuned back in when she said, “-I saw it in the corner of my garage and it was a dog but it was _big_ , I thought at first it was a bear cub or something.”

“But it wasn’t a bear right Mrs. Talburn?” Tom asked very clearly and very slowly.

“You think I don’t know what a bear looks like?” She asked annoyed, “Definitely a dog.”

“Come on Wade where are you?” Tom muttered too low for Mrs. Talburn to hear.

It was approaching 30minutes since they talked, which meant Wade was 10 minutes late. At the 15 minute mark the odds of Wade finding what he was looking for without help would drop into the single digits. If the pole snare wasn’t where Tom thought it was in addition to that. The odds of finding it would become 0. Tom sighed and hefted the crate onto his hip.

“Can you show me where the dog is?” Tom asked, forcing kindness into his tone before the night drained the rest of it out of him.

“Wade can’t make it?” She asked, faux shocked as she haughtily stepped forward to point him toward the back corner under the old kid bikes.

Tom ignored her question. He crouched down, squinting into the dark at a scruffy shape. It wasn’t nearly as big as he thought. Definitely smaller than Ozzy, but it looked too round and spiky to be a dog. Maybe the size of a younger raccoon. It was probably a raccoon. If anything could survive being hit by a truck it was one of those devils.

“Don’t worry ma’am. I’ll take care of this _dog_ . You can go back inside.” Tom said with a smile charming enough to make her ‘ _Ooh’_ , tell him how much he reminded her of her husband, and leave with a blush. Once she was gone, he glared at the raccoon and said low and angry, “If I didn’t want her to come back and tell me more stories about her dead husband, I’d just shoot you, but unfortunately her ears work just fine. So, it’s your lucky night. I’ll take you home to my wife, she’ll fix you up and then I’ll dump you somewhere deep, _deep_ in the woods and we won't have to deal with each other ever again. Deal? Capiche?” obviously he got no response except for an increase in some heavy, almost fearful sounding, breathing from the furry mass, “Well if you survive the night. Let's make this easy for both of us. I’m going to open this crate and you are going to walk into it like a good raccoon. Then maybe I’ll get you some food and water before I send you off.”

Tom opened the door and slid the crate carefully toward an opening where the raccoon would be funneled by the tipped over bikes into the crate. He’d hoped that since the crate had towels duct taped over the openings on the sides and back, it might try to hide inside. Maddie was the one who insisted since the suspected dog would already be scared and might try to bite through. Last thing she needed was for Tom to get rabies since he is overdue on his last titer. Tom was now starting to regret putting off that doctor’s visit.

“Okay just get in there and we can go somewhere safer than here.” Tom said as he looked over his shoulder for a pole or a broom to poke the raccoon with to guide it into the crate. 

Tom jumped when he heard something dashing through the bikes and into the crate with enough force that it pushed it back into Tom’s knee. He quickly reached around and shut the door and locked it. 

“Well…” Tom swallowed, he heard what sounded like something hard rattling through the bikes, almost like there was pins or needles on the creature. 

Tom hoped the raccoon hadn’t gotten tangled in barbed wire or a trap, because that would delay the release part of the “catch and release” Tom was hoping for. He loaded up the crate into the back seat of the cruiser and radio’d Wade to let him know he could stop looking for the pole. Wade sounded very disappointed as he had just found it right as Tom called in. He drove the cruiser home, and brought the crate inside and left it in the downstairs bathroom with a sign on the door that said, Raccoon or Dog Inside BEWARE, taped to the door.

It was 1 am and that thing in there was a “in the morning” problem, so Tom went to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

A soft voice whispered in Tom’s ear as he lounged on a beach far away in Morocco, “... _ Tom _ ”

“Mmm?” He sighed as he swished the last half a beer in his hand, watching the liquid swirl in the brown glass. His gaze lazily traveled over to his left where he saw a large raccoon sitting on the arm rest with its little raccoon hands on its raccoon hips snarling at him.

“Tom Wachowski!” It chittered.

Tom snapped awake, and looked around deliriously to see his wife with her cute little hands on her cute hips glaring at him, “I told you to wake me up when you got back!”

“Good morning, you are so beautiful I love you.” Tom rolled onto his side to gaze at her where she stood halo’d in sunlight, “I couldn’t wake you up because you were so warm and I was so tired and cold.”

“I don’t care,” She smacked the covers where she knew his leg was, “You should have woken me up. That dog could be dead right now because I didn’t see it until...” She looked at her smart watch, “almost 8:30 in the morning.”

“Don’t worry about it. It's just a raccoon. It’ll be fine.”

“It got hit by _ a truck, _ Tom,” Maddie did the one thing worse than a frown. 

Her face went cold and hard except for her eyes which burned through him and straight into his soul.

Tom was awake enough now to know he’d messed up and he decided to correct the mistake by taking her to the downstairs bathroom, assuring her along the way, “Its a raccoon. It was up and moving just fine last night. Those things can be hit by a nuke and probably make it.”

She saw the note he wrote last night, it was less funny in the morning now. Tom kept a smile on his face but he swallowed nervously as she fixed him with a 1000 degree stare and slowly opened the door. Tom heard the sound claws clumsily sliding against tile, followed by the sound of the shower curtain being disturbed as something presumably scampered into the bathtub to hide.

“Didn’t you lock it in the crate?” Maddie asked as he held the door firmly shut and looked over at Tom with wide eyes.

Tom looked back at her in disbelief that she’d doubt him, “Of course, but its a raccoon! The devil gave them hands and a mask to commit crimes.”

“Don’t try to be funny while we have a  _ wild animal _ loose in our bathroom,” Maddie whispered angrily at him, “The towels Rachel gave me are in there.”

“Lucky I picked the downstairs bathroom. I just saved our nice towels upstairs,” Tom smiled through the sharp slap to his gut Maddie gave him before she slowly cracked the door open again.

“I can’t see it,” Maddie huffed and closed the door, “I’m going to get my boots and coveralls. We have a snare in the shed.”

“We do?” Tom raised his brows in disbelief, “How have I not known we had one of those?”

“Yes,” Maddie sighed, “Its under the cross country poles, and I know you’d try to catch the raccoons with it.”

“I could have been practicing for this very moment!” Tom continued to joke and he knew it was getting to Maddie because she had to make a concerted effort to keep from smiling. 

She just pointed to the shed and walked up stairs. Tom took a moment to watch her go before retrieving the pole snare from the shed. He practiced catching imaginary raccoons to pass the time before Maddie returned in her coveralls, boots, leather gloves, and with her vet kit. She assembled a pole with a syringe on it with what Tom figured was a sedative. Maddie was prepared to take all the fight out of their bathroom guest.

“You snare him and I’ll lance him okay?”

“10-4 babe,” Tom smiled and let Maddie slowly open the door for him.

He crept around the crate in the center of the floor. Shredded towel still attached to pieces of plastic from a crate that looked like someone busted out the front door. Dried blood was tracked all over the floor by both paw and hand prints. Most unnerving was what looked like a child’s handprints on the door and doorknob. Except these hands clearly left faint claw marks in the paint.

“Freaking horror show in here…” Tom muttered to himself as he recited a mantra internally in his head, ‘ _ raccoon paws look like hands, you don’t have a human child in here.’ _

In the tub, pressed into the corner under the faucet was something that Tom’s eyes told him was dark blue and silver in color, furry and not human, but his brain couldn’t seem to identify what it was beyond that.

“What the hell?” Tom leaned forward and tapped the large spiky fur on the creature’s back with the end of the snare and he could hardly believe his ears when it sounded like he was brushing up against- ‘ _ are those quills?’ _

The creature launched itself straight into the air and Tom felt his heart fly into his throat and his mind went blank in fear while his arms moved on their own. In some feat of dormant animal catching prowess emerging in Tom, he managed to get the snare around the creature midair, looped it around his neck and pulled it back to earth where he pinned it in the corner of the tub. He didn’t even get a chance to call to his wife before the creature started screaming and thrashing. Tom’s jaw and gut clenched at the sound, freezing him place. 

Maddie was in the room and she lanced the animal with the sedative in seconds.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Tom’s words came out stiff as his jaw slowly relaxed to allow him to speak, he swallowed heavily blinking tears from his eyes, “That is not a fucking raccoon.”

Maddie was frozen in place and trembling as she looked at Tom pained and confused. She just shook her head and peered down at the creature as it ran its hand-like paws over its muzzle as that last of its snarls died in its throat. It screamed like a child, a human child, and Tom felt dirty as he held the snare.

His wife took a few shuddering breaths and slapped her face with both hands. Dr. Wachowski was back on the clock. She might have startled tears in her eyes, but she was at least moving again. She started examining the animal in silence. Tom wanted to let go, take a walk around the house, but Maddie stopped him. If it woke up, she’d need him there to restrain it again.

Tom looked at the creature. It looked much smaller now that it was asleep. It had thick quills coming out of it’s back, most of which were broken or bent, a pointed muzzle with puppy-like needle teeth, too-big ears like a puppy, and unnervingly human looking green eyes and clawed hands. Something about it made Tom think of a freaky looking werewolf. It was just too human to be a regular animal.

About fifteen minutes later, Maddie finally spoke. She had been working quickly, cleaning and closing a cut along his front limb and a gash along the shoulder, the latter presumably from the truck.

“Nothing is obviously broken but he’ll need x-rays because there could be fractures I can’t detect and his bone structure is strange.” Maddie said, “we can try to move him.”

“With what crate? He destroyed Ozzy’s” Tom said, his shoulders and neck were starting to hurt, he hadn’t relaxed them once since he snared the creature, and his muscles were trembling.

“I- um.” Maddie frowned as she looked at their crate and at the beat up animal, “The clinic has extra crates. Heavy duty ones for…  _ unconventional _ animals. I’ll have to get one there.”

“That is a thirty minute round trip. Will the sedative last that long?” Tom could hear the faint notes of panic begin to creep into his voice.

“It won’t,” Maddie said, “but we cannot have him loose in the car.”

“What if we wrapped him in a towel, like really tightly wrapped?” Tom offered, He was joking. Humor was his lifeline this morning it seemed, but the look he got from Maddie told him everything he needed to know, he dropped all humorous intent, “I don’t want to do this again.”

“I can snare him and you lance next time,” Maddie had a distressed undertone that made her words come out progressively more snide and condescending, “We can’t have him get loose in the car. How the hell do we get him into the clinic? Assuming we even make it to the clinic and we don’t end up in a ditch on the way, trapped in the car with a hurt and terrified animal coming out of a drugged stupor.”

“Fine! Sorry I asked.”

“Thomas don’t you dare snap at me!” Maddie snapped.

They both took a breath, apologized to each other, and worked together to remove all the broken pieces of Ozzy’s old crate and carefully closed the door behind them.

“I really don’t want to lance him again.” Tom said, he shivered thinking of the terrified screams of the animal, “Also when did we start calling him a him?”

“I know, that probably could have been handled better, but we worked with what we had,” Maddie said and then added quickly, “I don’t know, it just happened. I didn’t really know how to check. Its not really important at the moment, but I might have to figure that out at the clinic.”

Those last two statements were deeply concerning from a Vet. This situation was a lot simpler at 1 am last night when they had a “raccoon” in their bathroom. 

Maddie was out the door in five minutes and heading to the clinic. Tom decided against getting the scotch off the top of the fridge and decided to eat breakfast and tie the dog up outside instead. 

It was about 15 minutes later that Tom heard something rattle against the bathroom door. Tom held his spoon tightly in his hand like a weapon as he inched around the table toward the bathroom. His heart stopped as the door creaked open and the creature stumbled out into the hallway. The creature’s momentum carried him into a collision course with the opposite wall and Tom listened to the animal cry and howl in frustration as it tried to work with a half drugged mind and uncooperative legs. 

Something about how pitiful he was made Tom drop his guard. A chuckle worked it way out his lips as he had visions of a young Ozzy deliriously stumbling around after his dental extraction. Tom inched forward as the animal gave up and collapsed in a heap in the hallway. It was breathing fast and heavy, from fear, pain, or possibly both, but Tom knew what people locked in sheer terror looked like and this thing was just person enough for Tom’s heart to ache looking at him. This little guy was a fighter and Tom found it surprisingly enduring.

“Hey,” Tom said quietly and the creature snarled but it didn’t get up, and Tom wasn’t sure it had enough energy to do so, “I’m really sorry about that, but we needed to make sure you were okay.”

Tom was caught off guard as the creature  _ glared at him _ like he didn’t believe him. He brushed it off as his mind over analyzing the human-like eyes and pushed forward. 

“Listen, I was told you got hit by a truck and it was really impressive that you still managed to destroy that crate. You are really strong and you are kinda cool looking,” Tom was just trying to fill the space with calming words, he felt like he owed the little guy that much at least, “I bet you’re really scared right now, and this is really confusing for you. Me and Maddie want to help you. It really doesn’t seem like we are helping you, but we are okay?”

Slowly the creature’s breathing slowed and the quills on his back, which were quivering and rattling against each other with how tightly they were tensed, started to smooth into six relatively distinct spikes, each tipped in a silvery color. His ears were trained on Tom and his eyes searched his face as if he was looking for a lie. A thought process Tom tossed out, because that would require an understanding of human speech  _ and _ morality. This little guy was obviously just trying to figure out if Tom was going to eat him or not.

“I get the feeling you are smarter than your average raccoon or dog. You odd little raccoon-dog… thing.” Tom cocked his head to the and made a contemplative noise as he looked over the creature before him. 

The creature didn’t get up from his odd crumpled position but he cocked his head, mimicking Tom and Tom smiled as the creature's large pointed ears flopped to one side with the motion. Curiously, Tom scooted closer and reached out a hand and the eyes jumped between Tom’s hand and face looking deeply uncertain with what was happening. The quills on his back expanded out of their distinct spires into a fearful jagged mess. 

Tom didn’t need to be told twice and he withdrew his hand and scooted away and sat against the wall a few feet away, “Sorry! Sorry, I won't try that again.”

Tom knew he needed to get the critter back into the bathroom, but he couldn’t bring himself to scare him again. So, he sat in silence, watching him out of the corner of his eye. Tom got up once to grab his coffee and the creature flinched, jutting out his quills and tensely watching Tom and he didn’t relax until Tom sat down and pretended to ignore him. 

Maddie was taking longer than anticipated and Tom found his mind wandering. He zoned out, lost in his thoughts for no more than five minutes when he heard the scrape of claws on wood and saw the creature stalking toward him. Tom immediately took a sip and looked away. On a second glance, Tom determined it was more like half crawling/half dragging himself toward Tom, but it was unnerving all the same to be approached and given such direct eye contact by an animal. All the hair rose on the back of his neck and on his arms, as a cold, dry nose touched him. 

Tom slowly looked down again to see the creature, still fairly limp, sprawled on the ground at his hip looking up at him with large puppy dog eyes. Tom squinted unsure if this was a trap, but he moved his hand carefully so it was hovering an inch over the creature’s head. The creature gave his hand another oddly human expression as it frowned, it’s brow-like ridges pinching together. 

Then the creature weakly pushed off the floor and closed the distance between him and Tom. He head butted Tom’s hand and his chin landed on Tom’s thigh. He huffed once and went slack, exhausted by the movement. 

They were an odd duo. Both of them looked completely unsure of the situation, but neither one moved. Maddie was going to be in for quite a surprise when she got home.

Tom took a sip of his coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it is morning. Yes, he did not change back. Just hang tight, I'm going somewhere with this.
> 
> Also thanks for reading!!


	3. Chapter 3

Maddie had been so surprised when she returned and saw Tom with their creature houseguest asleep and drooling on his pant leg. Her fear was replaced by awe as she crouched next to Tom to look down at him. Thankfully, from this point on, Maddie and Tom were able to coax him into the new crate and he would just watch them, cautiously optimistic, like he understood their words. He reluctantly allowed Maddie to examine him even after the vet tech snuck behind and put the basket muzzle on him. The indigent looks he gave both Tom and Maddie as he was x-rayed and bandaged up would have been cute from a husky or a lab, but were almost too aware coming from an animal with human-like eyes. 

Tom and Maddie drove home in silence from the clinic, neither one commenting on the white elephant in the car. He seemed to take direction like he understood them and they still had no idea what species he was.

When they brought him home, they planned to keep him in the bathroom and limit his movement. X-rays found no broken bones, but Maddie worried about him walking on the wrist of the injured leg and picking at the stitches and they figured this little guy, who Tom started calling Raccoon-Dog or RD for short, could tri-pod it for a while. 

They didn’t know how he’d react to Ozzy. Tom was hopeful since RD had been fairly passive thus far. Maddie however, wasn’t willing to risk it. With his injured leg bound against his body, RD wasn’t in a position to defend himself. She reasoned that the chances he’d become aggressive were higher. Ozzy, as much as Tom loved his dog, was a lover, not a fighter.

When they opened the door of his crate into the bathroom RD stumbled out, stood up on his hind legs like a person, and whipped off the cone they put on him. He did so by deftly un-clipping the hooks before tossing it into the corner of the bathroom with an exasperated huff. 

RD’s head whipped around and he looked shocked like he’d forgotten Maddie and Tom were there. The two humans, their mouths dropped open, watched RD slowly drop lower back onto his three good legs and walk out of sight behind the sink. 

Maddie and Tom sat together on the couch after Tom’s shift that same night and Maddie finally asked, “This is not normal right?”

“What?”

“This is weird, _Him_ .” Maddie looked at the bathroom door, it was closed now, but earlier she’d heard it open and watched him slowly walk out, on three legs this time, into the kitchen and steal fruit from the counter, and return to the bathroom and close the door quietly behind him, “He drinks out of the water bowl by picking it up with his hands and sipping it Tom, _with his hands_.” 

She wiggled her fingers in front of his face as if it made her point clearer. Tom pushed her hands back into her lap. He’d gotten four different calls from his wife about the strange things their guest had gotten up to. How she’d catch him walking on his hind legs, using his hands in a very human way, and while she is not certain, she swears she’d heard him speaking to himself, with human words, in the bathroom. He wasn’t human, but they now really weren’t sure if he was an animal either. At least not an animal in the way either of them were used to.

“What are we going to do with him when he’s all healed up?” Maddie asked, “He’s not a dog, we can’t really keep him, I don’t know a zoo that could take him, and I don’t want him to get taken away by some government agency and get experimented on.”

“I don’t see why we have to keep him. He had to have been getting on just fine in the forest so I guess we can release him like any other wild animal that gets brought in,” Tom shrugged and grabbed his beer from the coffee table and took a swig, “Right?”

“I’m not sure he was doing all that well. He’s so skinny and I found buckshot in his rear leg on X-ray,” Maddie said her words heavy with dark implications.

Silence fell over them. There are a lot of chicken coops in the area. Easy target for ailing or inexperienced hunters. Around these parts, you don’t release problem animals, you cull them.

“Its just- He’s...”

“Different? Yeah,” Tom put the bottle to his lips and paused, “he feels like a puppy, or a cub right? Do you think he has family out there?”

“I mean…” It was Maddie who shrugged this time, “Something made him.”

Tom eyed his wife and noticed she had a bit of a sly smile on. 

Tom took another swig and laughed, “Damn straight.”

\--A week later--

Tom looked at the strange animal laying in Ozzy’s dog bed staring out the window. The eyes would occasionally focus and he’d watch the dust in the last of the evening sunlight but the animal would heave a big sigh and his eyes would unfocus again. 

By day two they had given up on keeping him in the bathroom. He kept letting himself out anyway.

By day three he stopped eating any dog or cat food they offered him. Dry or wet, he wouldn’t touch it and Tom didn’t see a point in forcing it since RD seemed to only choke it down because they gave him no other option. Day three was burned forever in Tom’s memory as time spent trying to figure out, through trial and error, what the raccoon-dog would eat only to end up cooking a third plate for their guest at meal times.

By day four, it was clear he and Ozzy weren’t going to have any problems outside of RD stealing Ozzy’s dog bed. RD looked rather small in the dog bed, having come in at a slim 10 pounds when they weighed him at the clinic. He still managed to dominate the large dog bed and the older canine just laid sadly on the hardwood floor with just a paw on his own bed waiting for his turn.

RD was curious about everything they did and he followed Tom and Maddie around the house at a distance. If they turned around too quickly he’d almost fall over himself to run away. The two humans had to stop trying to rush forward and help him when he kept turning to run on the side with the bound limb and simply fell. A few times they swore he had said “ouch” but it was always too quiet. Their creature houseguest had kept his distance from them and while Tom tried to close the distance literally and figuratively, he hadn’t been successful. Maybe now that his mind was clear, RD wasn’t interested in getting that close again. So Tom, after some gentle encouragement from Maddie, decided to wait for RD to come to him. Maddie consoled him that they shouldn’t get too attached anyway.

Every night Maddie and Tom would lay in bed and ask. _What do we do with him when this is over?_ They don’t know where he came from. He is awkward on his feet like they are new to him, and they aren’t sure he can fend for himself. 

So they’d have the same conversation swapping roles every time:

“We can’t keep him. He’s a wild animal and that's illegal.”

“Is he really an animal though?” One would counter.

“What do we feed him?”

“ _Apparently,_ lasagna, hot dogs, Caesar salad, cereal, ice cream-” One would list off.

Each time this conversation would come to the same conclusion, which was no conclusion. Perpetually it was a decision postponed, a conversation tabled, a bridge to cross when they got to it. 

Tom knew he had to bring him in today for a check up and to change out the bandages. The last appointment was going to be out of the clinic at 5:30pm and he’d need to show up about 15 minutes later so the staff could let him in. A tech volunteered to stay late to help them. Tom looked at the clock, it was 5:32pm. He leapt out of his chair which scrapped noisily against the floor. Both Ozzy and RD flinched with RD shrinking into the dog bed enough he was mostly hidden except for his eyes and his broken and jagged quills which were fully expanded.

“We’re gonna be late. RD we have to go,” Tom said as he rushed to the door to put on his coat, Tom said the next part mostly as a joke to himself as he looked for his keys, “If you get in the crate before I find my keys you won’t have wear the muzzle.”

Tom put his hand into his coat pocket and his fingers brushed against keys just as he heard the sound of the crate door clicking closed at his feet. RD’s furry form hunkered in the back corner, his big eyes watching Tom from one of the slits in the plastic sides. Tom swallowed and added this moment to a very long list of unnervingly intelligent things RD has done up to this point.

“Thanks bud,” Tom said slowly and he looked at Ozzy who was now flopped on his bed and looking very relaxed, “Ozzy be good. No parties while I’m gone.”

Ozzy just yawned and prepared himself for a nap.

\---

Tom parked at the back of the clinic and was brought inside by one of the Vet techs. He opened the crate one the exam table. RD started to step out but he caught a glimpse of the muzzle that the technician had sitting on the counter nearby and shrunk back inside, fixing Tom with a pointed scowl.

Tom held up a hand, “No muzzle today.”

“But-” the tech gave him her own pointed look, _It’s my fingers, not yours, on the line here._

“He promises not to bite anyone today,” Tom said to the incredulous tech and RD stuck his head out of the carrier with pinned ears and an insulted expression for Tom.

The tech caught enough of RD expression to quickly grab the muzzle and exit the room. Tom could hear her say to another tech, “My shift ended 10 minutes ago and I don’t get paid enough to deal with that freaky dog.”

Tom saw RD’s shoulders hunch and his head and ears drop. Without thinking, Tom tried to comfort him by petting the top of his head, “It’s okay buddy, don’t take it to heart. I think you’re really cool looking.”

They both froze. Tom with his hand on RD head and RD hunched over with ruffled quills. This was the first time since that morning a week ago that Tom touched RD. So much for waiting for RD to come to him. Tom pulled his hand away, feeling he’d crossed a boundary. RD just sat back and gingerly placed his good hand over top of the spot Tom’s had been with a curious expression.

The exam door opened and Maddie came in and noticed the lack of muzzle, “You going to behave today?”

RD nodded absentmindedly. Maddie pointed to RD and mouthed to Tom, _Did he just nod?_

 _Yeah,_ Tom mouthed and nodded because what else were they supposed to do at this point? This week was already so weird.

“Okay buddy,” Maddie said, “Let’s take a look at how you are healing up.”

When Tom got home and let RD out of the crate, he went bounding out. His mood seemed vastly improved without the bandages. Tom should have been more surprised that RD was fully recovered from his injury. Maddie couldn’t even see a scar. The only evidence it had happened was the line of hairless skin because the hair simply hadn’t had time to grow back yet. After a week of one weird thing after another, Tom was tapped out of surprise.

Tom dreaded the conversation he and Maddie needed to have tonight though. They had a bridge cross. When Maddie got home her face said she was thinking along the same lines as Tom. They made dinner together, whispering to each other while RD curled into Ozzy’s belly, making sure his quills were soft and pointed away from the dog’s underbelly. When they called him to dinner, he popped up and scrambled over to his designated chair at the table. Ozzy got up and followed the energy RD gave off, gently wagging his tail.

Maddie set a plate out for him and walked back around the kitchen island to stand next to Tom. She covered her mouth with her fist. Tom bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t need to look back to know RD was probably smiling as he ate. They didn’t know how to explain it other than RD had a child-like glee at meal times since they started letting him sit at the table with them. A cold stone settled in his heart and he met eyes with his wife.

“We have to release him right? Let him gain a little weight maybe, but we have to let him go?” Maddie barely whispered the question, she was asking for Tom to convince her that was the right choice, he would feel in her tone, “We can do it safely can’t we? Where he won’t get into another chicken coop or away from people? He already got shot once.”

“We can take him somewhere in the woods.” Tom kept his voice as low as he could, he feared RD could listen, “I have a friend who is a forest ranger we could ask to bring him somewhere really isolated.”

Maddie was silent then she said weakly, “It feels cruel.”

“I know, but can we really keep him here?” Tom asked, he wasn’t a pet, they didn’t have the right to keep him like one.

A plate rattled loudly behind them and Tom and Maddie spun around thinking RD had knocked his food to the floor. They saw him staring at his food with pinned ears and a face of abject horror. His lip began to tremble and he slowly met their eyes. Fear, pleading, and regret cycled across his face then his breath hitched and he kicked off the chair and went bounding up the stairs as fast as he could.

“RD!” Tom abandoned the stove and ran after him.

“Tom?” Maddie said but she quickly removed the pans from the stove and turned it off before following.

Tom got to the top of the stairs. The hallway was dark but he heard the sound of shifting furniture in their room and he threw open the door and slapped the light switch.

“Hey buddy,” Tom crouched down and reached out, brushing his hand against RD’s leg.

“No, no no no no,” RD sobbed as he wedged himself between their bed and night stand and flared his quills like when Tom first met him, “Please don’t send me away!”

Tom couldn’t reach in to yank him out even if he wanted to. He didn’t though. It took active effort on his part to not immediately leave the room after hearing RD speak. RD _actually_ spoke.

Tom’s mouth was dry, “Wh-What?”

“Please, I don’t have anywhere to go,” he said with a quivering voice, “I can stay hidden, you won’t even know I’m here. Please don’t drop me _deep_ , deep in the woods or shoot me!”

It was so desperate Tom stammered out immediately, “O-okay we wont do that! Just hey- um-” Tom took a breath as the insanity just caught up to him, “just uhh, talk to me okay?”

“...really?” RD said in a small voice as he finally looked over his shoulder with wet bloodshot eyes.

Tom squeezed his eyes shut, he apparently had a little bit of surprise left him in but he pushed forward and gave RD his most reassuring smile, “Yeah, but it’s really hard to have a uh- conversation with you hiding under my bed ‘K?”

RD took a shuddering breath and nodded before slowly crawling out of his hiding spot and sitting cross legged like a little kid. The animal act was exactly that Tom realized, an act. Maddie took this moment to burst into the room and Tom caught her with a look and he patted the floor next to him with an unspoken, _just sit down for this one_. Maddie settled onto the floor and her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she didn’t speak.

Tom took the lead, “So… when were you going to tell us you could talk?” 

Maddie shot him a look and Tom just shook his head; they’d talk after this if they needed to.

RD nervously scratched the side of his head, not looking at either of them as he mumbled, “Maybe never.”

Maddie’s eyes went wide and a tight smile crossed her lips. She kept her thoughts to herself though. Tom was in charge of this conversation it seems.

“You really thought that was going to work long term?” Tom asked before he realized the question sounded harsher than it did in his head.

“Maybe,” RD sat a little straighter, he was clearly embarrassed, “The last person I talked to freaked out and shot me.”

“So, you were just going to let us treat you like a dog indefinitely?” Tom asked and RD nodded, and a thought crossed Tom’s mind, “Did you even used to live in the forest?”

RD pinned his ears and opened his mouth to speak but just shook his head no.

“Did you used to be human?” Tom asked and he got another head shake, “Did you used to live _in a house?_ ”

A nod. Tom threw up his hands. He really couldn’t believe this.

Maddie groaned next to Tom as she realized something and said, “Oh my god Tom, we fed him dog food on the floor.”

“Where are you from? How did you get here?” Tom asked the comforting tone giving way to exasperation because this was becoming a lot to process really fast, “Are you able to get home?”

“Short answers... space, a portal, and no,” RD fidgeted nervously as the two humans met eyes again.

The silent conversation that passed between them via rapidly changing expressions and sighs ended with an affirming nod from Maddie to Tom.

“An alien huh, that explains a lot,” Tom started and Maddie shot him a look telling him to get to the point, “There is a lot to process here, and you are going to have to tell us who shot you, _but_ ,” Tom dragged out that last word for a second drawing RD eyes up to his, “we aren’t going to kick you out. You can stay as long as you need to.”

“Really?!” RD smiled and his tail started to wag, thumping out a happy little rhythm on the carpet.

Tom and Maddie realized at this moment, they were looking at a child. Some alien runaway or refugee child, and they were now responsible for him.

“Um, RD?” Maddie asked and RD gave her his full attention, “We’ve been calling you, RD, Raccoon dog, and buddy, but now that we know you can speak I have a question… Do you have a name?”

He smiled a wide shit eating grin, probably knowing what he was going to say next would throw the two humans for a loop, “Thanks for asking. RD is great and all, but it's inaccurate. My name is Sonic, and I’m actually a hedgehog.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: having Maddie remove the pots and pans from the burners and turn off the stove was 100% to ease my own anxiety. Cooking fires are no joke kids.


	4. Chapter 4

“You’re a hedgehog?”

“Yes,” RD, or rather Sonic, affirmed.

Tom and Maddie’s eyes followed from his long wagging tail, his canine-esque haunches, and tall, pointed, wolf-like ears. The only things that appeared to be remotely hedgehog-like were the spines on his back, which were far longer than any hedgehog would have, and the pointed muzzle, which could easily be added to the canine category.

Sonic’s tail stopped wagging. He got a pensive look on his face as he followed the path their eyes took.

“Not all hedgehogs look like this,” Sonic’s ears flicked back for a moment but he seemed to force them back upright by the end of his sentence.

“Uh-huh,” Maddie said mainly to fill the silence.

“Heh, I guess I am a bit of a freak of nature now,” He gave them a pained smile and his tail began to tuck.

The humans shared a look. They messed up.

“What do we know?” Maddie scoffed at herself. 

Sonic looked up puzzled.

“Or- or care, right?” Tom added as he scooted toward Sonic, Maddie nodded in agreement and the puzzled look didn’t leave Sonic’s face but he didn’t pull away which Tom took as a good sign, “You’re an alien, and we only know what hedgehogs on earth look like. It was unfair of us to judge you by our standards. We’re sorry.”

Sonic face screwed into a perplexed, but amused expression. Tom had the feeling he was missing a connection somehow. He reviewed the conversation in his mind.

“What… What did you mean by _‘now’?_ ” Tom asked and that amusement dropped from Sonic’s face.

He just shook his head, “Nothing. Just um, that I’m kind of out of place here on this planet ya know? Well you probably wouldn’t know, you’ve never left the planet. _I’m assuming_ you never left this planet. Have you?”

Tom could see Maddie’s incredulous squint and her lips firmly pressed in a line to keep herself from calling out Sonic’s clumsy redirection. The truth behind that “now” was buried in a dark, tangled mess of emotional baggage and history. Both adults could feel their skin crawl slightly at the thought of teasing through it when Sonic clearly wasn’t comfortable with them yet. There was no reason in Tom’s mind to sabotage their progress by pushing too quickly too soon.

“Well I don’t know about you Maddie, but I think that is all the paradigm shifting I can take for one night?” Tom gave all three of them an out and he prayed they’d take it.

They did.

Tom clapped his hands together with the finality of a gavel on a block, effectively ending the conversation, “We should get ready for bed.”

“It’s 7,” Sonic said flatly.

“We haven’t even eaten yet,” Maddie cocked a brow.

“We should eat and see where we are feeling from there,” Tom amended his statement which was met with lukewarm approval.

Dinner was tense and shortly after Sonic was sprawled on the couch with his eyes slowly dipping closed. They didn’t tell him to get down now that they had a better idea of what he was. As Tom and Maddie finished putting away the last of the dishes they heard gentle snoring from the living room. He looked young and small and when they approached he instinctively curled into a self protective ball in his sleep. The emotional toll on Sonic was heavier than the two adults realized and Tom covered him with a blanket before heading upstairs with his arm around his wife’s waist.

In bed the conversation started slow but it went late into the night. They had an alien with heavy emotional baggage sleeping on their couch downstairs whom they have now invited to live with them… indefinitely. The word “parents” came up and was quickly dashed. That wasn’t fair to Sonic. As far as they knew he had a family, and what parent makes their kid travel in a dog carrier?

They did need somewhere more permanent than the couch for him to stay. They tossed around ideas, including the space in the attic, but it was a lot to ask of someone as small as Sonic to manage the attic stairs everyday. When he grew, which according to Maddie’s observations of Sonic, he was going _to grow_ , the attic might be useful down the line. One space did exist, but Tom and Maddie decided to wait to get Sonic’s input in the morning.

\---

They swung open the door and sunlight filled Maddie’s craft room turned storage room. A wave of heat hit all three of them at once. Maddie slipped past Tom and over Sonic into the room where she weaved around boxes and tubs of both hers and Tom’s things to open the vents allowing cool air to rush into the room. 

“Well, its kinda bright but natural light is good and we can get curtains,” Maddie focused on the positives and ignored the stacks of boxes in her way.

Sonic hesitantly stepped into the room, carefully taking in what he saw. Tom was still wrapping his head around Sonic _the person_ , not RD the animal, and in this moment, the way he leaned around corners, his ears perked and scanning the room, read more as “wild animal” then “sentient being”. 

Tom physically shook the thought from his head and focused on the task at hand.

“Um,” Sonic sat in the center of the room, he seemed to be trying to pick his words carefully, “It’s a.. A little cramped, but I appreciate having a space that isn’t the bathroom. Although, it was oddly convenient in the middle of the night.”

Tom suddenly tried to think of a time he had to clean up after Sonic and came up blank. He’d figured it was Maddie who’d taken care of it first. Tom didn’t have to ride that train of thought very far before realizing that he was distracted.

“The boxes aren’t staying,” Maddie clarified for Sonic, “I’m not actually sure what we’ll keep, but I think a lot is going to be rehomed to the attic.”

Sonic perked up at this and he looked around the room with renewed interest.

“It’ll take most of the day to get it set up, but this’ll be your room,” Tom said, “Doesn’t seem right to make a kid live on the couch when we have a whole room we aren’t using.”

“You sure? It looks pretty well used,” Sonic lightly joked and he stood on his hind legs and peered over a grey tub that was nearly as tall as he was.

“I mean if its not good enough for you-” Maddie joked back but Sonic cut her off.

“I didn’t mean it like that! Its great, really,” Sonic added with pinned ears.

“Oh honey, I was just trying to play along,” Maddie looked at Tom and Tom was caught off guard by the sudden panic in Sonic’s voice too.

Sonic apologized, “You were joking, I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on that. I was a little too literal ha.”

Tom watched Maddie turn away and jut out her jaw as she does when something frustrates her. Usually she reserves this level of frustration with herself or with her husband. Maddie took a few moments to formulate her next thought. 

She put on a smile to say, “Hey, how about I start sorting through these boxes and you help Tom make space in the attic?”

Tom jumped in, “Come on, I’ll need some help. Let’s see who is faster, her or us.”

“That’s hardly fair, you have two people,” Maddie said, she was already moving bins and boxes.

“No, its fair,” Tom countered, “you’ve had a head start.”

Tom didn’t waiver under the scrutiny of her gaze and Sonic watched enraptured by the two of them.

\---

Tom carefully stacked bins around the attic. The heat wasn’t ideal and it would probably be well worth his time and money to insulate the roof better. Something he would have to add to a long list of expensive home improvements that came with owning a home. Tom watched Sonic run from task to task, working quickly and pushing himself to constantly work faster. 

Tom didn’t say anything about it, worried if he brought it up, Sonic might slow down. They were making good time, and Tom had a bit of a competitive streak. So, Tom should have then seen it coming when Sonic, in one of his wild runs, ran headlong into a poorly stacked tower of boxes. Sonic tried to dodge away but wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid the top two boxes in the stack.

Tom heard a yelp and jumped away from where he was working, “Shit, _RD?_ I mean- _Sonic?_ Hey you okay?”

Tom watched Sonic push the box off himself. He couldn’t help be worried, but Tom also remembered this kid got hit by a truck and shot and still managed to walk away from both events. Sonic shook his ruffled quills and didn’t respond. His jaw was clamped shut. The faintest hint of movement of Sonic grinding his teeth betrayed the deep frustration.

“You never answered me bud,” Tom crouched next to Sonic who just turned his back to him with a huff. 

Was Tom offended? No. He just reminded Tom so much of JoJo when she became fixated on the negative when she was a toddler. Tom without much effort fell into an old rhythm back when he and Maddie watched after JoJo. All Tom needed to do was break the negative spiral. 

He scanned the room and saw something uncovered by Sonic’s little mishap, “Hey Sonic, look what you found.”

Tom got up and started to uncover an unexpected surprise. First Sonic’s ears followed Tom but soon he was next to him moving boxes to unearth a red race car bed.

“I forgot this was up here,” Tom pulled the bed out.

Plastic scraped noisily on wood and both boys flinched at the sound. It didn’t stop Sonic from looking over the bed with great interest.

“Every kid wants a race car bed, if they would have had them around when I was little I would have wanted one too,” Tom was trying to sell the bed, “You’d be the envy of everyone.”

“What’s a race car?” 

Was not the first question Tom expected, but Sonic was an alien.

“Well they are cars designed to go very fast,” Tom said and Sonic unexpectedly got a sad look on his face, “I bet they aren’t as fast as you. I’ve seen you running around all day.”

“Thanks, but I’m not that fast,” Sonic shot down the flattery with a dry tone, “at least not anymore.”

Tom’s brow furrowed as he logged that tidbit for later, “I mean, you are already pretty fast. Definitely faster than me.”

Sonic pursed his lips and Tom got the distinct feeling he wasn’t being as helpful as he’d hoped.

“This is really cool. Why doesn’t your bed look like this if you wanted one so bad?” Sonic crawled onto the sleeping pad. The protective plastic wrap crinkled loudly and Sonic cringed at the sound.

“I’m not cool enough anymore,” Tom shrugged then added, “but I think you are _just_ cool enough for a race car bed.”

“Excuse you,” Sonic sat tall, “ _Just cool enough?_ I am way past cool.”

“Fair, fair,” Tom yielded.

“Why do you have one of these?” Sonic asked as he picked at the plastic, “Are they usually this noisy?”

“Thats a protective cover for the mattress first of all, and we got it as a gift for one of our nieces, Maddie’s sister’s kid, but her sister didn’t think it was a good bed for a girl,” Tom explained.

“Why? I thought all people wanted a bed like this?” Sonic looked doubtful.

“Well some adults aren’t as cool as you or me,” Tom said matter of fact.

Sonic thought over that answer then asked, “Why?”

Tom sensed the beginning of a pattern here and asked, “Before I answer that, Sonic… how old are you?”

“Six,” Sonic replied.

“In earth years?”

“Are earth years longer or shorter than Mobian years?”

Tom didn’t know the answer, “How long are Mobian years?”

Sonic shrugged in a way that screamed _very young_ to Tom. He could continue to interrogate  Sonic while they both sweated through their shirt and fur respectively, or they could move somewhere cooler. If he was being honest with himself, Tom didn’t know if the specifics really mattered right now.

“Well, lets go with six. You go talk to Maddie about lunch and I'll bring this bed down stairs,” Tom said with a wink and a nod.

Sonic scampered toward the stairs and stopped just short of the first step before he turned around, “The bed is cool, but I am putting my foot down now. I _will not_ sleep on that plastic.”

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll get you proper sheets,” Tom smiled and Sonic returned it.

“I like the color blue or red or green!” Sonic said and he ran down the stairs. 

Tom turned around to pick up the bed when he heard scampering up the stairs. 

With his head just peeking over the top step Sonic asked with uncertain eyes, “Sheets are the thin blankets you put on the bed right?”

“Uh, yeah?” Tom wasn’t sure if they were talking about the same thing. They put a lot of layers on a bed now that he thought about it.

Either way the answer was good enough for Sonic because he brightened up, “Just don’t get anything boring like you have.”

“Wait what?” Tom wanted Sonic to explain but he thought of his sheets and shrugged.

Sonic had a point. Their sheets were a little boring since they only owned grey and navy. Maybe he’d have a talk with Maddie about getting those novelty sheets with the comic book explosions on them.


End file.
